Long before there were weekly meets at Smith College, Dick Atkinson and a dozen kids got together at Curry Hicks Cage for some informal racing.
Bill Kane, left, and Dick Atkinson have been instrumental in turning indoor track in the Pioneer Valley into the gentle giant it is today.
On a December morn 45 years ago, 12 high school runners from the Pioneer Valley convened in Curry Hicks Cage at the University of Massachusetts. They answered a call sent out by Dick Atkinson, coach of track and cross country at Southwick High School.
“It was all informal. We didn’t keep score. We just arranged races for kids who wanted to run in the winter,” he said.
The first such “meet” took place Dec. 7, 1968. Until then, there had been no such thing as indoor track competition for Western Massachusetts high school athletes.
That particular point bothered Atkinson, who attended Revere High in the Class of 1950 and had the opportunity to compete in indoor meets at the Newton Street Armory.
“I remembered how good indoor track was in Eastern Mass., and I felt the kids out here were being cheated by not having that opportunity to race in the winter,” Atkinson said.
As a UMass graduate who ran for legendary coach Bill Footrick, Atkinson had connections there and at Amherst College.
“We had those Saturday sessions wherever we could – mostly at Curry Hicks, sometimes in the Boyden Building, sometimes on the dirt track at Amherst. We’d chip in to pay the janitor,” Atkinson said.
After attracting a dozen athletes in the first week, Atkinson had 20 two weeks later, and the numbers just kept increasing. The first group of indoor runners included Bob Rosen, then an Amherst Regional senior, now a Springfield lawyer who volunteers as an assistant coach of the Amherst boys team.
“UMass had a board track, maybe 10½ laps to the mile,” Rosen said. “Having that opportunity to run indoors really helped, and it was fun – a new thing for us.”
With Atkinson as its guru, indoor track continued to grow over the years and really took off in 1986, when Smith College offered its sparkling indoor facility for use by the valley’s high schools.
“It got to a point where I began to think that we should have a league,” Atkinson said. “So I got together with Billy Kane of Holyoke and (the late) Ted Dutkiewicz of Springfield Central in 2001, and we formed the league you see on Friday nights at Smith,” Atkinson said.
The Pioneer Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference meets are directed by Kane, a retired 35-year coach of cross country and track at Holyoke High.
The numbers tell the story of how far indoor track has come. The PVIAC encompasses 21 schools, each with boys and girls teams. Kane said rosters of the 42 teams involve 1,670 athletes.
“They don’t all compete every week, because some kids do more than one event, but altogether, it’s a fantastic enrollment for track,” Kane said.
Each boys and girls team competes in 21 events. Conducting a meet involving so many teams and athletes would appear to be a major undertaking, but the PVIAC handles it with precision.
“It may look that way from a distance, but it’s really organized chaos,” Kane said with a smile. “But we’ve had 14 years to get it right, and things do go pretty well because we have great kids competing and a dedicated bunch of coaches and officials.”
The field events come under the supervision of John Dias, Kevin Ferriter, Sue Petzold, Patrick Lavelle, Richard Clark, Lisa Helpa and Ralph Figa. In the running events, Tom Stewart serves as starter, assisted by Christina Crocker and Rick Lajoie. At the finish line, the competitors are taken care of by Elizabeth Haygood and Priscilla Chadwick.
Kane’s wife, Eileen, and their son Christopher run the results table, and Wilbur Race Systems handles the electronic timing. PVIACtrack.com, a website operated by Kane, posts the weekly results each Saturday morning.
In the 1996 Summer Olympics at Atlanta, the PVIAC had three of its officials selected to work track events – Kane, Dutkiewicz and Lavelle.
Kane said he never ceases to be impressed by the sportsmanship of the high school athletes.
“It seems to be greater among the indoor track kids. You see athletes from different schools cheering for each other. These kids see each other week after week, and they form friendly rivalries with mutual respect. When I see that, it keeps me going.”
Along with learning to be good competitors and good sports, the athletes learn a lesson in public service. One meet each year is dedicated as a fund-raiser for the American Cancer Society.
As for Kane’s “organized chaos,” it works mainly because coaches prepare their teams well.
“The kids know where they’re supposed to be, and when they’re supposed to be there. There is no wandering around. We run off the 21 events in the same order every week, and that helps. We do have to change the order for our championship meet, because state meets are run in a different order, and we want to mimic them to get our kids ready,” Kane said.
The PVIAC will have its championships Friday. Since Berkshire County schools don’t have indoor track, this is the de facto Western Mass. championship meet. The scene switches to the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston for state divisional meets Feb. 14-17. An all-state meet Feb. 23 and the New Englands March 2 wrap up the indoor season.
“When you think about it, indoor track is a fantastic thing for the kids of our region,” Kane said. “Eastern Mass. schools did it forever, and now we have a viable program that prevents them from getting the jump on Western Mass. teams when the outdoor season starts in the spring.”
That’s what Atkinson had in mind 45 years ago.
“You have to go back to him when you talk about indoor track around here,” Kane said. “Dick helped so many kids at that time, mostly out of his own pocket. As for the meets we have now, a ton of credit must go to Smith College. They’ve been very generous to us, opening their indoor facility for our use. What we have now in the PVIAC wouldn’t exist without the people at Smith. You might say indoor track started at UMass, then had a rebirth at Smith College.”
Rosen, the lawyer-coach, has been involved in distance running since his high school years. He well knows the role Atkinson has played in the evolution of indoor track.
“There is no more significant person for the sport around here,” he said. “I would call Dick Atkinson the George Washington of track and field in Western Massachusetts.”
Atkinson, 80, had a teaching career that spanned 40 years. He retired in 2003 but continues to coach cross country and outdoor track at Southwick. Oddly enough, his school does not offer indoor track as a varsity sport, despite his many urgings in that regard. Still, he became a pioneer in the PVIAC league and has never lost his zeal. He often can be seen among the spectators at the weekly meets at Smith.
“A great place to go on a Friday night,” he said.
Garry Brown can be reached at geeman1918@yahoo.com